1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric heater for an automobile vehicle, with an electronic controller and a heat transmitting net, whereby the heat transmitting net contains a multitude of PTC-heating elements, a multitude of contact sheets and heat dissipating fins, whereby the PTC-heating elements are respectively arranged between two adjacent contact sheets and form a heating element with the contact sheets, whereby some of the contact sheets are connected to connectors, which are arranged at the electronic controller and are connected to either a positive pole of a power supply or a negative pole of a power supply and are arranged in an alternating order.
2. Description of the Background Art
An electric heater can be used to further enlarge the heating capacity of a heating system in automobiles. Electric heaters can feature a multitude of positive temperature coefficient (PTC) elements, that can be used to transform electric energy into heat energy, which can be used to heat up an airflow within a HVAC-system (heating, ventilation and air conditioning).
Usually PTC-heaters are tailor-made for a specific vehicle or for a specific HVAC-system. Therefore they cannot be used in other vehicles. PTC-heaters can often be installed only in one specific direction within a vehicle or within a specific HVAC-system.
PTC-heaters usually have a first part, that is used to cool down the electric controller of the PTC-heater, and a second part, that is used to heat up an airflow. To cool the electronic controller, air can flow through the first part of the PTC-heater. The air flowing through the second part can thus be heated by the PTC-heating elements.
PTC-heaters known in the conventional art usually offer a specific design of the frame that holds the PTC-heating elements, the heat dissipating fins and the electric contacts of the PTC-heating elements. Furthermore the orientation of the electric controller relative to this frame is usually fixed and specific to the vehicle and/or the HVAC-system used in the vehicle.
It is disadvantageous that, due to the specific design of the PTC-heaters known in the conventional art, the flexibility to use a certain PTC-heater in different vehicles or different HVAC-systems is limited.